The Goings-on

Jim and I really like fairs.  We want to be a fair-going people.  We missed the San Diego fair this year but went to the Orange County fair a couple weeks ago.  It was sort of a last-minute decision, and we didn't get there till kind of late in the afternoon. 

I took Dolly into the little petting zoo, but she just clung to me and was afraid.  We hit up the funnel cake place after that.  Jim got a delicious funnel cake with fresh blueberries and whipped cream.  It cost $11.  Then we got really upset about the price of the fair.  They charge so much to get in ($11 each).  They charge about triple the regular price for all food.  Then there are the rides.  And people are willing to pay for it all, so the fairs will just keep gouging.  Fairs are only fun if you get to eat all the food and ride the rides.  But how can one justify paying so much?  And how does one afford to take not only a spouse but multiple kids to the fair - at least without prohibiting the purchase of food and/or ride tickets, which would make it unfun?  We were, and I still am, very upset about this. 

We looked quickly at the camels and bulls, but Dolly was being fuss face.  Frustrated Jim, Dolly, and camels in the background:

 

We went to the Peking Acrobats' show.  Dolly finally settled down, so I could enjoy the show.  Among other tricks, the ladies balanced cups of pink liquid on sticks in their mouths:

The craziest thing was this guy who kept stacking chairs on top of one another and climbing higher and higher. 

At the top he did handstands and other crazy things:

 

It was really nerve-wracking, but he lived. 

 

There were lots of neat shows (circus, flying trapeze), but Dolly couldn't last.  We tried to hit up a Dobermans-doing-tricks show on the way out, but it was packed and then some.  If we could catch all the fun shows and the demolition derby (that's what I want the very most), maybe the price of admission and food wouldn't hurt so bad.  I still like the fair. 

 

The following weekend I took Jim to Cirque Magica at an outdoor venue down by the San Diego marina.  It combined music by the San Diego Symphony with circus performers.  I got half-price tickets - ostensibly for Jim's birthday, but really I just thought it sounded like a fun experience.  We got incredibly disappointing food there.  It was nice to hear live music.  We could've done without the circus-freak host, and some of the stuff was silly.  But they did traditional circus acts (like the lady doing splits, etc. in the air while holding onto sheet-type things hanging from the ceiling).  One of the most interesting parts of the evening was when two guys (introduced as being from famous American circus families) started their act, in which one of them was supposed to juggle the other on his feet.  Things were funky immediately, and the guy being juggled kind of fell.  Then it wasn't clear what was happening or whether they were going to continue.  The guy who was supposed to be juggled finally walked off.  The other guy stood on the stage for a while, apparently waiting to see if the other guy was coming back, and then he left, too.  And the symphony played and played, with no performers.  Turns out they aborted because the light was in their eyes.  They came out and took bows at the end, and it was weird because we didn't actually see their act.  The only part of the show Jim really liked was a guy who did amazing things with lassos.  He was cool.

 

Last week we went to Benihana with Deb and Jonathan Moffat, Brandon and Sarah Walker (who are in Deb and Jonathan's new ward), and another guy from their ward.  Jim, Deb, and Sarah all had birthday gift certificates ($30 off) to use.  It's the best birthday deal ever, and we always enjoy the Moffats. 

 

Last weekend I ran over a dog (golden retriever mix, apparently) on my way to Super Saturday at the church.  I didn't even see it until a split second before I ran it over.  I saw fur in front of me, and then there was the sound.  It sounded so bad that I thought I must have run over its whole body, and it had to be dead.  And then it wasn't.  I heard it yelping and saw it in the rearview mirror limping in circles in the middle of the road.  I pulled over, got out, and started screaming hysterically.  The dog made it to the side of the road and lay down.  Neighbors started coming out.  Most were very nice, except the guy who was yelling at me to calm down.  Another man yelled back at that man, "Are you saying to calm down?  I think that's the last thing you should be saying right now!"  I didn't know what to do or whom to call.  A lady finally called 911 and was told they'd send the Humane Society.  Some of the neighbors stayed with the dog and me until the Humane Society came, which seemed to take forever.  A lady sat and pet the dog the whole time.  I cried a lot.  It was devastating to see this dog in so much pain, not knowing how bad its injuries were or whether it was going to live or die.  One lady said she'd seen like three dogs get hit in that exact spot.  Nobody recognized this dog, so the Humane Society lady said they'd treat it, try to find the owner, and then, if they weren't successful in finding the owner, do an assessment and put it up for adoption (assuming, of course, it lived).  I asked if I could call to find out what happened, but I think I've decided that I'd rather hope it was OK then risk finding out I killed it.  HORRIFYING.  I never want to run over anything again.  It was so sad.  Oh, and my car got hurt.  The front bumper is totally cracked through.  The license plate holder broke, and the license plate got all bent.  Some plastic piece under the car got thrashed; a part of it broke off in the street, and part of it was rubbing against the tire.  I can't imagine the dog fared well given how damaged my car was.  So sad.  The best part was when I finally got to Super Saturday (Relief Society activity), still emotional, and my visiting teacher, who is awkward, shared a "similar experience."  She drove by a dead dog on the freeway.  She couldn't stop thinking about it all day.  She kept thinking how she really wanted someone to pick it up because she didn't want to see it the next day, but she didn't know whom to call to remove it.  The next day it was gone, and she was relieved.  Pretty similar, eh?  It was quite the bonding experience. 

 

On a lighter note, Jim had an inexplicable hankering for a cotton candy dipped cone from Weiner Schnitzel.  I always make fun of him for ordering kid things.  Like once we went to Baskin Robbins, and he asked the worker which of two flavors was better.  The flavors he was deciding between were something like Fiona's Favorite (think Shrek) and birthday cake.  The worker, of course, had never tried either of them because who over the age of eight has?  So anyway, in the drive-thru at Der Weinachskugel (as Jim calls it), he ordered his cotton candy dipped cone.  The worker asked what size, and Jim said, "Small."  Then the worker, perhaps a little incredulous, confirmed, "The small pink one?"  I asked Jim how emasculated he felt, and he said not at all.  He likes what he likes, and he is not ashamed.  I dig that. 

Wilson Beach Day and an Ordination

The Wilsons have a big family campout in Carlsbad every summer.  Karen and Carl Wilson have been wonderful about adopting Ever as their grandchild and treating us like family.  This year, Karen invited Ever to come and stay overnight in Carlsbad for one, two, or even three nights.  Having just done San Onofre, we said an overnight probably wasn't a good idea.  Instead, I switched a work day/Karen's babysitting day that week so Ever could spend a whole day at the beach with the Wilson clan. 

E-money with Papa:

 

With cousin Cali, who is so cute with her and can't wait to turn 12 so she can babysit:

 

 

 

 

 

With Nanny (formerly known as Nana - don't know why Ever suddenly changed it to "Nanny") and Jeremy:

That same week, right after the Wilsons finished their camping trip, the McEwans began their stay at these fabulous little cabins at San Onofre.  Gavin and Shawna McEwan had their oldest son, Christian, ordained to the priesthood outside their cabin.  It was an ordination party and a birthday party for Christian and Gavin's sister-in-law, Tracy.  Dolly got a little more time with the Wilson fam.  The only two pictures I got are this one, of Trisha Wilson, Everdeen, and me . . .

. . . and this one of Mark McEwan, Jim, Dolly, and Jeremy Wilson:



YM Campout - San Onofre

Every time Jim does a campout with the Young Men, he says sort of seriously that Ever and I should come.  I always blow him off, of course, thinking that's ridiculous.  But this time he was totally serious.  He planned a campout for Thursday, August 1 to Saturday, August 3 and didn't have any other leaders to go with him, so I was the second adult.  One of his counselors got us into the military campground at San Onofre.  Most people there were in RVs, but we pitched tents in the dirt.  It was us, the bishop's two boys (Carter and Grant Shirley), their little friend Andrew, and, for part of the time, Raphe Valdez and Tyler Meppen. 

We got there Thursday afternoon and set up camp.  Carter is a get-'er-done leader.  He took charge of setting up the gigantic new shade structure Jim bought for the occasion. 

Dolly had fun "cooking":

 

She also enjoyed a lot of time in the car by herself throughout the trip, getting into whatever she could reach:

Dolly recently started learning how to pose.  A couple weeks before this campout, I said, "Smile for Tutu," and she clapped her hand to her face and gave me this:

Jim tried the same technique another day and got this:

When I tried it during her car festivities on the campout, however, she did weird things like this:

I guess she just wanted the paparazzo to go away:

The boys spent a little time in the freezing water that afternoon.  Jim got in with a boogie board for a minute.  Then he went to get fire supplies (he'd been told we couldn't have fires, but we discovered a fire pit when we arrived), and the boys, Ever, and I played on the nearby playground.  Ever could ride one of the slides by herself and had a grand time.  The boys were really cute with her.  Andrew kept giving her a "ride" up the stairs to the top of the slide, and he followed her around and spotted her while she played.  Jim was gone an incredibly long time.  He returned with not only fire and s'more stuff but also a tiny wetsuit for Dolly.  He had decided to make a detour to the Rip Curl outlet because it was just right there, he said, and he wanted to be able to take our little water baby into the ocean while we were there. 

That night the main event, besides s'mores, was pouring hand sanitizer on hands and lighting them on fire.  Grant also spent some time that night standing by the adjacent campsite so he could watch the cartoon they were projecting onto a big screen by their RV (fancy camping people).  So cute that he's 13 and still unabashedly into Disney movies.

 

We put Dolly in her own little tent that night, just on the pad from the bottom of her pack n' play (without the pack n' play) with a blanket or two.  She went down without too much of a fuss, but she was up for three hours, between 11:30 P.M. and 2:30 A.M.  First I went into her tent and tried to get her to go back to sleep, but she seemed totally awake and wouldn't stop talking.  Then I took her into our tent, where she continued talking and also writhed all around.  She finally calmed down enough that I thought she could go back to sleep, so I put her back down in her tent, and she slept until about 8:00 A.M. 

 

Friday morning, some of Jim's surf buddies came down, and they and Tyler (the only young man who surfs) went out early.  (San Onofre is home to the famous surf area known as Trestles.  I told Jim this was a YM campout and not a surf trip with his friends, but he didn't see why it couldn't be both.)  They got back just after everybody else got up, so it worked out fine.  We had pancakes for breakfast and then did a "hike" (really a 1.4-mile round-trip walk along a rocky beach) to a sea cave in nearby Dana Point, after driving all over the place trying to find the starting point.  It's a protected tide pool area, and we were warned not to touch anything.  The boys were undeterred. 

Raphe, Carter (inexplicably sporting jeans and a flannel), and I



Raphe, Carter, Grant, and Andrew

This was the opening to the cave.  There was water at the bottom, so we had to push against both sides with hands and feet and maneuver through:

From inside the cave:

There was a smaller cave right around the corner from this one.  Tyler scaled over to it and came back holding a little crab, which he excitedly showed Ever by putting it right in front of our faces.  Ever immediately reached out and grabbed the crab, which immediately pinched her finger and wouldn't let go.  I froze and did absolutely nothing.  I have no experience with crabs and wasn't sure how to free her finger.  Tyler eventually pried the crab off.  Dolly cried for a really long time.  Poor thing.  I'm the worst mother ever in crisis. 

 

 

 

The boys had a good time, and I was really glad we went.  Spending an entire day at the beach, from breakfast to nighttime, would've been incredibly boring I think, especially since the water was so cold.

 

Jim wanted to take the boys out for lunch after the cave extravaganza.  I said taco shop.  Tyler suggested Pedro's Tacos; said it's awesome!  So we went there, and it was awful.  I had not-good chicken tacos.  Multiple people in our group ordered bean and cheese burritos that were bereft of any cheese.  Tyler complained and was told that's how they make them.  Total bust.  We stopped at a little market to get milk for Dolly on our way back, and Jim got me a delicious ice cream sandwich that sort of made up for the lunch, though.

 

Dolly passed out in the car on the way back to the campground.  Jim and the boys got wetsuits on and took the surfboards down to the beach.  I left the car on and air conditioning running and let Dolly sleep and sleep.

 

 

That evening favored us with a beautiful sunset.

 

Jim, Carter, Andrew, Grant


 



 

Friday night was more fire and s'mores and flaming hands. 

Carter lit one hand on fire and tried to put it out with the other hand.  The hand sanitizer got on his other hand, so he had both hands on fire for a good while as he waved them around trying to get the fire to go out.  It was pretty impressive.  I believe the two blue flaming areas in this photo are Carter's hands:

 

 

I asked the Shirley boys if their mom would let them play with fire like that, and Carter said, "Absolutely ... not."  I felt cool.  I was tempted to try this hand sanitizer trick but never did. 

 

Dolly woke up in the night again Friday night.  When I went into her tent, she put her arms up to me and said, "Done!"  I took her immediately into our tent, and she settled down before too long and slept in Jim's arms.  Next time we'll make her a little bed in our tent and see if that goes better.  We may also have better luck if the campground isn't close to a freeway and right next to train tracks.  The freight trains came by at all hours and were incredibly loud and long. 

 

Saturday morning we ate more pancakes, broke camp, and came home.  It was a nice vacation for me.  The boys and Jim did everything - the cooking, the cleaning, the setting up, and the taking down.  I just hung out.  I think there may be more YM campouts in my future. 

Padres Game

Wednesday, July 31 Jim and I went to a Padres day game at Petco Park.  Jim figured it was the only game we'd go to this season, so he paid too much for amazing seats pretty much right behind the Padres' dugout.  I got a giant, overpriced pulled pork sandwich, and Jim ate some dogs.  Jim told me stories about the players and taught me about the game.  The food and the teaching make attending ball games super-fun for me.  Los Padres lost, but it was still enjoyable. 

We tried to take a self-portrait, and it didn't work out.  This is all we got:

Hooray for jobs that allow us to take Wednesday afternoons off for family fun tim (minus Ever, who was with her Nana Wilson). 

Visit from Coco and Dun Dun

Coco's new fiancé, known in these parts as Dun Dun, happened to have a supremely timed conference in San Diego last month, giving the happy couple a prime opportunity to visit us. 

They arrived late Sunday night (or early Monday morning).  Bags rented a car, dropped Dustin off at his hotel in San Diego, and then came up to Oceanside.  She and I both worked Monday and Tuesday. 

Wednesday morning we dropped Bags's rental car off at the San Diego airport and then squeezed in a 15-minute meet-and-greet with Dustin at the Starbucks across from the Convention Center before heading up to Orange County to the home of an LDS lady who sells wedding dresses.  Most of the dresses were hideous (because apparently people who design and buy modest dresses have the sickest taste imaginable), but she had a couple really pretty lace dresses.  (Bags and I had already been dreaming independently about lace.)  It was fun to be able to shop with little Bags and give my very strong opinions.  We found one dress that was almost perfect but refrained from pulling the trigger because of the price tag. 

Thursday we went to a little wedding dress boutique in La Jolla that was recommended to me by my mentor at work, Stacey.  She said they had a range of dresses - with and without sleeves - and that they were mid-range as far as price goes.  In fact, although they had some great dresses, they were all strapless and very expensive (to us).  It's really awkward shopping for wedding dresses with no-Mos (aka people not of our faith) who don't understand the modesty requirements.  They keep thinking that if you add a two-inch, sheer piece over your shoulder, you'll be good to go.  I find it surprising and extremely frustrating that nobody in the world wants a dress with a top and sleeves.  I mean, people get married when it's cold, and lots of people don't look good in strapless dresses (but I guess they don't know that).  No wonder Mormons are shelling out thousands of dollars for custom-made dresses!

Thursday afternoon Bags went down to watch Dustin give his final presentation, and then they had dinner with Bags' friend Kara and her husband in San Diego.  They got home around 10, and we introduced Jim and Dustin and chatted as long as we could stay awake. 

Friday was our only day with Dustin.  The itinerary revolved pretty much entirely around food.  We went to breakfast at the Beachbreak Café and then to La Jolla to check out the seals.  Dolly got her Hollywood on in the car:

At Children's Beach in La Jolla, this little guy was the first seal we saw:

 

I made a comment about how he was missing arms and looked weird.  I was ridiculed and told that seals don't have arms.  Later he popped out his arms (flippers?), and I was vindicated.
 

 

 

Dolly just kept point to the water and saying, "Otter [water] in," over and over:

 

 

She was pleased when Jim threatened to throw her over:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim couldn't resist Dolly's pleas, so he took her in the "otter" for a few minutes:

 

 

 

We walked along the coast a bit and observed the segregation of seal v. bird on this giant rock:

I'd take the stool-free seal side, myself.

Bags and I were into this really dilapidated old building (the picture doesn't do it justice), which appeared at first to be abandoned.  The resident upstairs didn't like when Bags took a picture:

After La Jolla, we went back up to Oceanside to JR's Hawaiian Shave Ice (owned by a guy who used to be in our ward).  I don't remember having the fancy shaved ice (finely-shaved, with ice cream in the bottom) growing up.  It's pretty delicious.  Jim goes through periods of obsession and wanted to introduce the Dunster.

Mikayla babysat that evening so we could go to dinner at the Flying Pig, which had been highly recommended.  I liked my food, but Jim was really not a fan of his.  We won't be returning.  We walked from the restaurant down to Coldstone by the pier.  Dustin had never been to Coldstone, and the worker gave us incredibly skimpy portions of melty ice cream.  It was a big disappointment, and Jim and I will also not be returning to that particular Coldstone.  You win some; you lose some.  Then we walked down the pier, and I made Bags and Dun pose:

 

As we started heading back to the car, Jim decided he felt like some refreshing frozen yogurt.  So Dustin stepped it up and had a second dessert with my crazy husband.  After we got home, we taught Dustin vicious gin.  He's gotta be down with vicious if he's gonna be a Hastings.  

 

Dustin flew out Saturday morning, after we introduced him to chocolate and almond croissants from Trader Joe's.  (Again, food-obsessed much?)  Our friends the Davises, who live just a cul-de-sac up from us, had a garage sale Saturday, so I ran up there while Bag Lady took Dustin to the airport.  I got Dolly a few toys and these Mardi Gras-style necklaces: 

 

 

One of the toys I got is this set of wooden fruit and bread in pieces that Velcro together so kids can "cut" them apart with a fake wooden knife.  Dolly played a little bit with it.  Then she got in the box and got sad:

 

 

Saturday afternoon Bags and I had a most awful shopping experience at David's Bridal, where the workers were at a complete loss but tried to pretend they might have something modest enough to work.  (The biggest wedding dress chain in the world, and not a one.)  Jim and I had to make a very brief appearance at a birthday thing Saturday evening, and Cornyee graciously babysat Dolly.  We made brownies to take with us to the party.  To my knowledge, Dolly had never had a brownie before, but boy did she know she needed one.  She was in heaven:

 

 

Dolly also did some vacuuming while holding her "chapper" (that's what we call Chapstick, so that's what she calls it):

 

 

Sunday we went to church and just hung out until Bags left that night.  Somewhere along, Bags photographed Ever showing off her toe-sucking skills:

 

Around this time, Dolly got this weird idea of putting her foot on her tray, putting her head down on her foot, and saying "night night."  She started doing it all the time - fake sleeping on her foot.  Silly girl. 

It was wonderful to meet Dustin before the wedding and get a little involved in the wedding planning.  I'm so glad Bag Lady has met somebody wonderful and worthy of her.  While she was here, we were talking about wedding stuff, and Jim got choked up talking about how proud he is of her and wants her to have everything she wants, etc.  Made Bags and me cry.  All is well in Zion.

P.S.  I should add that it's been weeks now since this visit from Coco and Dun Dun, and Everdeen is still talking about them.  "Dun Dun, buh-bye.  Coco, buh-bye."  I told her they'll come back.  So she also says, "Dun Dun, back," "Dun Dun, home," etc.  She apparently thinks that some man shoes under the stairs are Dustin's (they either belong to Jim or Bret Davis, who is currently staying with us).  When we go by them, she says, "Dun Dun dirty shoes."